Read Burn for You: Outback Skies, Book 2 for Free Online Page A

hard time without him breaking someone’s nose or not was another matter.
    Twenty minutes later, with the topic of conversation moving from the fire to the upcoming visit from the Federal Minister for Arts and Culture to open the Ridge’s first indigenous art gallery, Ryan drew to a halt outside Evan’s house.
    “Thanks, mate,” Evan threw over his shoulder as he climbed out of Ryan’s pickup. “If you see Jess in the pub, tell her I don’t want to hear from her until the sun’s set at least three times.”
    “Shall do,” Ryan replied through the open window after Evan shut the door.
    Evan was two steps away from entering the dark front verandah of his home when a shout from Ryan stopped him.
    “Oi, Ev?”
    Turning, Evan frowned at his friend. “What?”
    Ryan fixed him with a steady gaze, the muted glow from his pickup’s dashboard casting his face in a soft green light. “I know you don’t want the fame or attention, but you really did save Jess and her crew’s lives, ya know. Don’t forget that. You may not call yourself a hero, but that’s what you are now to a lot of people.”
    A tight band of pressure wrapped Evan’s chest. “I’ll try not to let it go to my head.”
    Ryan laughed. “Remember, it’s your shout next time, hero. Crown Lager all round.”
    Before Evan could tell his friend to bugger off, Ryan planted his foot on the accelerator and tore away.
    Shaking his head, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, Evan turned back to his house and climbed the dark steps to his front door. He stopped, keys in hand ready to slide into the lock, when the distinct scent of Lou Lou perfume threaded into his breath.
    Jenna.
    “Hi, Evan,” her voice caressed his ears from the deep shadows to his right.
    Throat constricting, gut churning, he slowly pivoted to face her.
    She stepped towards him, the darkness of the new-moon night doing nothing to hide from him how stunning she was.
    He’d been attracted to her from the very moment he’d met her one hot summer afternoon when he and Tracey had gone to Bondi Beach to swim. Tracey had mentioned a friend from university was meeting them there, but Evan had hardly been paying attention.
    He’d been full of himself back then. Six years younger with an ego the size of a teenager and a job sexy enough to feed his ego. Tracey had been the perfect girlfriend, interested in little but fucking him whenever she could and hanging off his arm whenever they were out.
    They’d looked good together. His fellow firefighters at the National Aerial Firefighting Centre had hardly been able to conceal their lust for her every time she attended a function with him.
    He’d been convinced their happy-ever-after was set in stone—the hotshot aviation firefighter and his soon-to-be-graduated social-media major girlfriend.
    So he’d been more than a little shocked by his body’s reaction when the tall, willowy young woman with the curtain of straight ink-black hair and mesmerizing sapphire-blue eyes unfurled herself from a towel on the sand and smiled shyly at him.
    He’d spent the rest of the day at the beach doing everything in his power to appear indifferent to every word she said. Fought like hell to deny the effect those words—articulate and intelligent words about global politics, movies, sand, fish and chips, seagulls, animal rights and skydiving—had on him.
    He’d refused to look at her, no matter how many times Tracey accused him of being rude. If he’d looked at her, there’d have been no way he’d be able to not gorge himself on the sight of her creamy light-brown skin, flat belly, toned limbs and curved hips exposed to his gaze by her black bikini.
    By the time he and Tracey had left, Jenna staying behind to chat with the guy she’d met an hour earlier while splashing about in the waves, he’d known he was going to have a hard time not thinking about her.
    The next time he’d seen her, she’d been dating the guy from the beach—Richard